EXPLORING THE PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES

OF STUDENT RESEARCHERS IN ADDRESSING

PLAGIARIZED CONTENTS: BASIS FOR
INFORMATION LITERACY PROGRAM

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL

2024
Volume: 16
Issue: 3
Pages: 289-299
Document ID: 2024PEMJ1457
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10463935
Manuscript Accepted: 12-17-2023
Psych Educ , 2024, 16(3): 289-299, Document ID:2024PEMJ1457, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10463935, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

Exploring the Practices and Challenges of Student Researchers in

Addressing Plagiarized Contents: Basis for Information
Literacy Program
Jadz Psyche P. Arnoco*, Genesis B. Naparan
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.
Abstract
Librarians have a unique role in academic institutions in addressing plagiarized content among
student researchers since librarians are gatekeepers of information that leads to bringing information
literacy programs into the curriculum. With that, the researchers aimed to explore the practices and
challenges of student researchers in addressing plagiarized content as the basis for an information
literacy program. Specifically, this study aims to determine the practices in reviewing the literature,
challenges in addressing plagiarized content, and their coping strategies. This study used a qualitative
method. It was conducted at the academic institution located in the municipality of Sultan Naga
Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte. The participants of this study were 18 fourth-year students who recently
passed their final defense on their research subject and were selected purposively. The results found
that the students were able to analyze the abstract of literature and anchor themes based on the
problem of the study. However, lack of literature comprehension, limited available related studies,
and pressure to meet deadlines marked the challenges they encountered. This hindrance stops them
from brainstorming unique thoughts. Meanwhile, they were able to cope with the challenges by
scanning more references, repetitive reading, and utilizing paraphrasing tools and plagiarism
checkers. Thus, librarians must conduct an information literacy program to address plagiarized
content in research.

Keywords: student researchers, practices, challenges, plagiarized contents

Introduction by Republic Act 10372 (Yoo & Yoo, 2016).

Using someone else's words or ideas as one's own

Librarians have a unique role in academic institutions
in addressing plagiarized content among student
researchers since librarians are known as gatekeepers
of information that leads to bringing information
literacy programs into the curriculum (Michalak et.al.,
2018). Taking or duplicating another person's written,
artistic, or other creative work into one's own without
properly citing the source of authorship is not
acceptable (Music, 2019). It was passing someone
else's creative output as one's own is unethical and
unlawful. It hurts the scientific community and
presents significant challenges for reputable journals
that disseminate reliable scientific research. Many
worldwide organizations and institutions dedicate
substantial resources to addressing this issue,
searching for solutions to reduce or eliminate
plagiarism and other unethical scholarly practices
(Masic, 2019; Montoneri, 2019).
Republic Act No. 8293, often known as the Intellectual
Property Code of the Philippines, was revised. No.
10372, passed and signed into law in 2013. The
researchers conducted a study on one specific clause,
section 14 of Republic Act No. 10372. Republic Act
10372, which altered the copyright laws of the
Philippines' Intellectual Property Code. The Bureau of
Copyright and Other Related Rights was established
without properly citing the source is considered
unethical. This serious academic offense is a breach of
academic integrity. Plagiarism has emerged as a
pervasive, complicated, and significant learning
problem among college students. It is a persistent issue
that discourse communities must address (Echanique,
2020). Khan et al. (2021) state that understanding
plagiarism is crucial for avoiding intellectual
dishonesty, fostering academic integrity, and ensuring
high-quality research. For librarians, upholding high
standards for academic integrity is difficult. With
technology playing a more significant role in people's
lives, access to information technologies has begun to
be recognized as a fundamental right, allowing people
to replicate other people's work whenever and however
they see fit. It is simpler to obtain content and software
because physical barriers have vanished due to the
Internet. Plagiarism is regularly/often/frequently
violated since work can be downloaded and copied
without much effort or price (Gun & Partners, 2019).
These instances, if not prevented, can lead to
intellectual dishonesty. Intellectual dishonesty can take
many different forms, including plagiarism (the act of
copying or asking someone else to write any work or
publication), contract plagiarism (paying someone else

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Research Article
to do it), bribery (exchanging money, goods,
or services for a favor, such as a good grade or a
positive review), misrepresentation (to intentionally
misleading someone for academic gain), conspiracy
(to fabricate or alter experimental data; cite sources
that are not used; and more) (Montoneri, 2019).
Regarding citation styles, specific anti-plagiarism
regulations, and plagiarism punishments, the student
researchers’ expertise was lacking. This one was not
familiar with library Information Literacy activities
and their function in the fight against plagiarism
(Khan et al. 2021).
Plagiarism is a sort of academic dishonesty, cheating,
and intellectual thievery. It could be considered a
violation of academic honesty. Plagiarism is defined in
a wide variety of ways. Turning in someone else's
work as your own, copying words or ideas from
someone else without giving credit, failing to put a
quotation in quotation marks, providing inaccurate
information about the source of a quote, and changing
words but copying the sentence structure of a source
without giving credit are some significant factors that
have been compiled that constitute plagiarism (Ismail,
2019).
According to Wijaya and Gruber (2018), plagiarism
by students results in the closure of their intellectual
honesty in their work. Begum and Sharma (2018)
claim that if book piracy is not stopped, the global
book market will eventually collapse, and
governments will lose a lot of money from pirated
publishing. The prevalence of plagiarism among
student researchers who do "copy-and-paste" has
grown significantly. Most plagiarism can be greatly
reduced by routinely using modern detection
techniques, such as the online plagiarism detection
programs used by publishers. These methods,
however, cannot solve the issue on their own;
professors and students alike need to be adequately
informed about the adverse effects of plagiarism. For
people who may transgress laws governing creative
authorship and ethical norms, there must be academic
examination and appropriate consequences in place
(Masic, 2019); what better way to begin paving the
road for academic integrity than to educate incoming
cohorts about the adverse effects of academic
plagiarism as soon as they start their academic careers
rather than when their studies are almost complete
(Hopp & Speil, 2020).
Bonifacio (2020) infers that Grammarly-generated
plagiarism results were sent to the students as part of
the Plagiarism Intervention Program, which had a
good effect on their research papers by educating them
about the need for in-text citations and paraphrasing.
Arnoco & Naparan
Plagiarism could be prevented with the proper use of
technology, particularly Grammarly, which is essential
while writing academic papers like research papers,
theses, and dissertations. Although Grammarly has
some restrictions, including the inability to detect
copied passages in books and other published works,
many teachers could use it to check their students'
papers, help many students use paraphrasing and in-
text citations when writing academic papers, and
ultimately eliminate plagiarism. Meanwhile, the
findings of Orlanda-Ventayen and Ventayen's (2019)
study indicate that graduate students in education
perform better on English proficiency tests than
graduate students in other fields. It is advised that
student researchers adopt plagiarism detection
procedures strictly to protect academic integrity.
The rise in students participating in online and blended
learning settings and ongoing technological
advancements are to blame for academic dishonesty.
The rising accessibility of the Internet in both
developed and developing nations is to blame for this
problem. The following as ways that technology
impacts academic dishonesty: improper citation after
using another author's information, use of
unauthorized sources and materials while doing
assessments (test or examination), having another
person complete academic assessments, and turning in
other students' work from online sources (Peytcheva-
Forsyth et.al. 2018).
Roman (2018) aimed to try using plagiarism-detecting
software and reduce the amount of plagiarism that
student researchers do to improve academic honesty
and integrity (Turnitin). Sixty-one (61) individuals
enrolled were chosen with an average effect size of 0.5
and given a two-week treatment period. According to
the results, the similarity index of the student
researchers’ submitted writings significantly decreased
both before and after Turnitin was used. Several
characteristics, including academic culture, self-
reliance, and a lack of a plagiarism detection system,
drove students to not address plagiarized content in
their manuscripts.
The different types of plagiarism that can occasionally
go unnoticed by academics make it urgent and crucial
to raise awareness of them. There are many ways to
avoid engaging in plagiarism-related behaviors. By
running their work via anti-plagiarism software, they
can reduce their risk of getting into trouble. The
development of the Internet has made plagiarism
easier are more common (Awasthi, 2019). Scholars
examining their articles as impartial peer reviewers
was one of several controversies in the scientific world
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that resulted from the drive to publish scholarly papers
at all costs. Publishers, primarily motivated by short-
term profit, often publish books and articles with little
quality control, while authors, under pressure to keep
up with the growing assessment of success based on
the number of publications on their resumes, act
irrationally contrary to the demands of intellectual
honesty. Therefore, it is not true that the "publish or
perish" mentality and the financial incentives of
scientific publication foster academic misconduct,
ranging from subliminal intellectual dishonesty to
outright plagiarism (Gikay, 2019).
Moreover, through a hierarchical structure that
identified the critical decision-makers in higher
education, the study of Akbar and Picard (2019)
attempted to paint a picture of plagiarism prevention
and mitigation policies in the context of higher
education. The in-depth examination of the plagiarism
discourses as they are presented in policy has taught
researchers several important lessons about how to
enhance academic honesty in practice. Although
substantial penalties for student plagiarists are
mentioned, plagiarism mitigation frequently focuses
on teachers by enforcing more prevention and
sanctions for activities by professors. Given the
importance of role modeling in this situation, the
emphasis on the plagiarism policy may achieve its
desired goals by lowering the incidence of plagiarism
among student researchers.
Many members of the current generation are not
entirely aware of the adverse effects of not addressing
plagiarized content in their research outputs. Harmful
effects of not learning about plagiarism on academic
achievement, self-confidence, abilities, and talents.
The drawbacks of not addressing plagiarized content
are pretty obvious, according to some students'
evaluations of their academic achievement, sense of
self, and skills and talents (Espena et al., 2020).
Fighting the act of addressing plagiarized content in
the research outputs is one of the jobs of librarians
since plagiarism threatens to destroy the entire body of
knowledge built up over the years by many
contributions. Unchecked intellectual theft and illegal
use of another scholar's arguments would cause
academic institutions to deteriorate and turn into
hotbeds of obscurantism (Chelliah & Litt, 2018). The
validity of every academic subject is threatened by
plagiarism. Estimating the actual rate of plagiarism is
challenging, though, because people are reluctant to
disclose their mistakes. People who are asked
questions about plagiarism frequently try to hide any
potential wrongdoing; therefore, they do not react
Arnoco & Naparan
honestly to such a delicate subject (Hopp & Speil,
2020). In some libraries worldwide, the observance of
originality in their paper or study has been a problem.
A large number of research and works of literature
have documented the prevalence of this problem. Few
researchers are reportedly doing any work on this
case's prevention (Roman, 2018).
Good publishing practices don't just happen; they must
be actively pushed to take hold. Researchers must be
aware of publication ethics and copyright regulations
when preparing manuscripts and presentations for
publication on the Internet or in journals because
plagiarism is frighteningly on the rise. 77.3% of
participants believed that plagiarism exclusively
happened in publications. Short deadlines for tasks
were cited as a justification for plagiarism by 33.6
percent (Deshpande et al., 2020).
The research conducted by Olivia-Dumitrina et al.
(2019) yielded several conclusions about how student
researchers see academic plagiarism. Equal
percentages of people understand plagiarism by
copying and pasting (69.3%) and paraphrasing
(68.3%). The rate is higher in the case of translation,
with 82.1% of students believing that translating
material constitutes addressing plagiarized content.
13.6 percent of respondents claim that citing digital
sources is not necessary. Students identified a lack of
interest, poor academic performance, the absence of
clear consequences, fear of failure, hectic schedules,
easy access to online resources, and the pressure of
meeting deadlines as the main reasons. To encourage
originality in research work, they also recommended
that librarians educate academics about plagiarism and
its repercussions and train them in correct citation
(Naureen & Ali, 2021).
While 87.88 percent of the student researchers in the
particular scientific program maintained a similarity
check below the allowed cut-off of 20 percent in a
journal publication, 12.12 percent nevertheless
recorded a high similarity check of up to 47 percent.
With that, most of the student researchers in the
particular science program significantly preferred
using internet-based articles to empirical or original
published papers and reports by researchers. The
researchers generally have a good level of awareness
regarding plagiarism and the effects of plagiarism
detection technologies (Retuya & Castro, 2020).
Academic institutions are enforcing strong laws
against plagiarism. Universities in industrialized
regions use anti-plagiarism technologies to identify
plagiarism and make significant efforts to educate and
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Research Article

provide information to researchers about the issue. The

scholarly literature also demonstrates that their
abilities for preventing plagiarism, it can be not easy,
libraries actively promote a culture of ethical
especially for those learning English as a second
information usage and plagiarism-free research on
language. Low reading comprehension, poor academic
campuses (Mansoor & Ameen, 2020). Hence, Burger
writing abilities, and a lack of English language
(2018) stated that a gap between students' conceptual
understanding of citations and their capacity to apply
competency all contribute to difficulties with
this understanding to their work appears to be the root paraphrasing (Stander, 2020).
cause of many types of plagiarism in the end. By
adopting a constructive, education-focused strategy
The present academic institution has formulated
and moving away from strict, punishment-focused guidelines for undergraduate thesis writing. However,
language and practices, institutions can collaborate the research manual has not yet been fully established.
with librarians to effectively address plagiarism The general guidelines have mentioned the overall
through documentation and the availability of design and flow of the thesis that is determined
resources, as well as through the courses they teach throughout the supervision process. These include the
and the students they teach. To combat plagiarism on research question, framework, and appropriate
their campuses, librarians use their awareness of methods. In terms of length, Parsimony is to be
students' difficulties with source attribution as a practiced. Ideally, the entire thesis should not exceed
springboard for preventive actions. 20,000 words. The proposal should be less than that.
APA format is the preferred citation style. Students
Furthermore, the recent lack of intellectual honesty has should be responsible for copy-editing the thesis.
made it challenging to achieve educational goals, Following the submission of thesis proposals, the
particularly at tertiary institutions. The most common program coordinator shall assign ethics reviewers.
fraudulent behavior nowadays among student Students have to fill out the ethics clearance form set
researchers is plagiarizing outputs. The damaging by the Office of Research and Extension. There has
impacts of originality in research on individuals, not yet been an established plagiarism checker for the
academic settings, and society at large are noted,
institution, but student researchers were encouraged to
which makes the library and librarians alarmed about
practice paraphrasing and use plagiarism checkers
these issues since the mandated and ingrained duties of
available online.
librarians play a strategic role in reducing this
malpractice. Among the responsibilities is an With that, student researchers in this academic
information literacy program (Idiegbeyan-Ose et al.,
institution need to address the problem of addressing
2018).
plagiarized content in their research works. Hence, the
Addressing plagiarized content is a widespread researchers aimed to explore the practices and
stereotype that primarily shows a person's educational challenges of student researchers in addressing
delinquency. It blatantly transgresses the rules plagiarized content: the basis for the information
governing academic honesty and integrity. literacy program. The study explored the practices and
Additionally, it forbids pursuing higher levels of challenges of student researchers in addressing
intellectual brilliance (Singh, 2018). Further evidence plagiarized content as the basis for an information
for the necessity of creating information literacy literacy program for the school year 2022-2023.
deterrent programs through librarian and faculty
collaborations. They also learned that faculty rarely Research Objectives
used the library's information literacy resources.
Institutions need to think about how to utilize different This study aimed to determine the practices and
academic and non-academic departments as well as challenges of student researchers in addressing
company-wide initiatives for these programs plagiarized content. Moreover, it aims to identify the
(Michalak et al., 2018). perceptions of student researchers about plagiarized
content, the students’ practices in reviewing the
It is essential to recognize the significance of literature, the challenges in addressing plagiarized
maintaining originality in research manuscripts in a content that the student researchers encountered, and
learning environment. Raising students' awareness of the coping strategies of the student researchers in
the need to avoid plagiarism and teaching them addressing plagiarized content.
specific techniques, such as paraphrasing, will do.
Even though paraphrasing is one of the most crucial

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Research Article
Methodology
This study used a qualitative method focusing on the
practices and challenges of student researchers in
addressing plagiarized content as the basis for an
information literacy program. According to Yazan
(2015), the delimitation of the case is a hallmark of a
Meriam (1998) case study. It refers to the situation as a
thing, a singular entity, or a unit with limits. It states
that researchers can name a case as long as they can
define the phenomenon of interest, establish its limits,
or “fence in” what they want to investigate. As a result
of employing the Merriam approach, the researcher
looked for patterns, gave meaning to the participation,
and constructed themes for this case study. The
researcher believes that the Merriam technique is an
excellent instrument and empirical data gathering
rules.
The study was conducted at an academic institution
that offers tertiary, secondary, and elementary
education. This academic institution requires the
student to submit hard bounds of their research before
graduation. The students were able to experience
struggles along with their research journey; however,
this academic institution has not yet availed plagiarism
checkers. In this instance, the researcher intends to
explore the practices and challenges of student
researchers in addressing plagiarized content as the
basis for an information literacy program.
The participants of this study were 18 fourth-year
students who recently passed their final defense on
their research subject. They were selected using
purposive sampling. Moreover, these target
participants were the student researchers who reflected
on their practices and challenges in addressing
plagiarized content during their research. The
researcher had chosen the student researchers as
participants of the study based on the following
criteria: 1. the participant is a fourth-year college
student, 2. the participant is a bona fide student of the
academic institution, 3. the participant was able to pass
the final defense, and 4. the participant is familiar with
plagiarism.
To collect data for the study, the researchers were
considered the primary research instrument with the
help of an interview guide. Before the acquisition of
data, the researchers drafted interview questions for
the interview guide. The researchers carefully
considered creating the interview guide questions by
starting with the study’s Central Question as the
baseline. The critical question gathered all of the
Arnoco & Naparan
study’s data. The interviewee was asked open-ended
questions to allow them to freely explain their
practices and challenges in addressing plagiarized
content as the basis for an information literacy
program.
Results and Discussion
The results and discussion are based on the data
gathered on exploring the practices and challenges of
student researchers in addressing plagiarized content:
basis for the information literacy program. The five
specific focuses of the study are Perceptions of Student
Researchers about Addressing Plagiarized Content,
Practices in Reviewing Literature, Challenges in
Addressing Plagiarized Content, and Coping Strategies
in Addressing Plagiarized Content.
a. Perceptions of Student Researchers about
Addressing Plagiarized Contents.
Three themes emerged from the responses about the
perceptions of student researchers about addressing
plagiarized content: Crafting a New topic based on the
research gap, Acknowledging Authors, and Ensuring
Authenticity.
Crafting new ideas. Every time the student researchers
read the literature, the students noticed that they were
able to construct ideas from it that were related to their
present study. The participants mentioned:
“We usually read articles from the internet. These
articles will be transformed into new thoughts while
we read. What we have understood, we use it for new
ideas.” – P1.
“Based on the process of constructing our paragraphs,
we consult studies from other sources. For instance, in
the introduction, we mostly construct our main points
out from the studies we have read. There we can see
the originality of our research output”- P5.
“We need to enhance our readings and literature
searches to generate new ideas. These generated ideas
were beneficial in establishing the originality of our
paper” – P8.
Addressing plagiarized content can be referred to as
either academic integrity or academic literacy and
involves the generation of new concepts or ideas.
Some students purposefully plagiarize for reasons such
as obtaining undeserved benefits, while others do it
unintentionally because they have limited knowledge
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of the concept (Tran, 2021).
Acknowledging authors. The student researchers’
perception of addressing plagiarized content includes
giving credit to the source. The participants narrated:
“Every time we get an idea from others, we need to
make sure that it will not be totally copy-pasted. In
fact, we ensure that we properly cite the name of the
authors and the year it was published” – P3
“We need to give acknowledgment from sources we
used in establishing originality of our paper”- P7
“When we gather articles, we need to cite, and we
need to give credits to the authors.” – P10
Academic literacies of the highest caliber are needed
to write a literature review. A lot of student researchers
struggle with this genre. Yet, they were able to
acknowledge authors by maintaining good citation
practices. Although explicit pedagogy is becoming
more widely recognized as being necessary to support
students writing in this genre, many pedagogical
interventions stop at an emphasis on citations as a
stylistic convention or as a means of preventing
plagiarism (Badenhorst, 2018).
Ensuring authenticity. Having an authentic paper
means the content of it is legitimate and the quality is
genuine, according to the student researchers. They
have stated:
“When I scale my research output, I could say that it is
a 9 over 10 (9/10). That’s how I describe my paper as
authentic. When we make the thesis, we ensure
authenticity and originality of the outputs.”- P9
“Addressing plagiarized content is really important
because it is the practice of being true to myself.
Someday, somehow, my output can make me proud
because it serves as a great contribution to my field of
profession, and I know it is really from me.” – P12.
“I believe that those who did not observe originality on
their research paper cannot fully defend their
manuscript knowing that they cannot determine the
purpose and gap of it from others” – P18.
Plagiarism is a moral failing that degrades the
readability and reliability of scholarly papers. For
student researchers to avoid using improper writing
techniques, it is crucial to raise their understanding of
verbal, intellectual, and visual plagiarism. International
editorial organizations have made their positions on
how to rid literature of repetitive, stolen, and deceptive
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information public. It is advisable to consult relevant
papers to update author instructions and warn
plagiarists of the academic and other repercussions of
their unethical behavior. Most instances of repetitive
and "copy-and-paste" writing are said to be caused by
a lack of innovative thinking and inadequate academic
English skills (Zimba & Gasparyan, 2021).
b. Student Researchers’ Practices in Reviewing
Literature
Three themes emerged from the responses about the
practices in reviewing the literature: Exploring
Problems as a Guide, Analyzing Abstracts from
Literature, and Scanning Open References.
Exploring Problems as Guide. The student researchers’
practices in reviewing literature were based on the
statement of the problem of their study. According to
them:
“In my part during the literature search, we take a look
at the problems in our introduction. That will serve as
the basis of the themes in our literature.”- P4.
“We need to be reminded that every time we look for
literature, we need to be in line with our statement of
the problem since oftentimes, we are re-directed with
other topics unrelated to our study” – P11.
“I use journal articles as a guide on how they identify
their research gap and get thoughts from it, knowing
that this helps during literature searching based on our
SOP”. –P16.
Academic writing challenges, such as those associated
with practices in reviewing literature, affect student
researchers' ability to complete their degrees on time.
Supervisors, administrators, support providers, and
students themselves may be able to overcome these
challenges if they have a better grasp of how students
perceive doing the literature review (Walter & Stouck,
2020).
Analyzing Abstract from Literature. Abstract is the
summary of the whole paper. It is a well-developed
paragraph stated concisely. The student researchers
take a glimpse first at the abstract before going
through the entire document during their literature
review. The participants mentioned:
“I usually focus first on the summary of the study
before I read the entire document. I believe that this
way of mine will give me a glimpse of how related the
content are in my study” – P2
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“I take initiative to read abstracts first, which we know
it summarizes the whole body of different studies.” –
P6
“I organize my literature by using these as my guide in
determining the important points in organizing my
literature. But in order to determine that this study fit
in, I read the abstract first” – P13.
The present educational system emphasizes teaching
and learning strategies tied to the Internet. In
reviewing the literature, most of the students first view
the synthesis of the study. All students demand access
to free and open educational resources in particular.
The learners' associated academic needs are fully met
by the free educational materials (Kumar & Prabu,
2021).
Scanning Open Access References. There are existing
open-access references online, which makes it
convenient and accessible to students. Student
researchers scanned these references during their
literature review. As they have stated:
“I use Google Scholar and ERIC because these give
free and open-access journal articles.” – P13
“We are advised to scan local journals since
international has diverse specific practices which is not
suitable for our study.” – P15.
“We put tags or keywords related on our topics every
time we scanned on scholarly journal articles so that it
is much easier for us to locate related literature and
studies.” – P17.
Open Educational Reference sources are open sources
for teaching and learning. It provides more access to
education and research. OERs are freely available to
use at any time by students all around the world
(Hilton, 2020).
c. Challenges in Addressing Plagiarized Contents
Three themes emerged from the responses about the
challenges in addressing plagiarized content: Lack of
Literature Comprehension, Limited Available Related
Studies, and Pressure to Meet Deadlines.
Lack of Literature Comprehension. The student
researchers observed that they needed to read all over
again the related literature they had gathered in order
to comprehend and come up with original ideas. The
participants shared:
“Every time we read articles, we read it more than
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twice to comprehend the main points that we need to
remember so that we can create original statements out
from it.” – P1
“My difficulty is when I cannot easily understand the
statements; that's why I need to re-read it again so that
it is easier for me to apply it in my study.” – P7.
“I think comprehending my literature is considered my
most challenging part because I need to comprehend
and differentiate my thoughts from that of the articles I
read” – P14.
It is clear that students' poor practices in literature
searching were a result of their poor reading
comprehension abilities, lack of critical thinking
regarding the authors' points of view, and inadequate
subject knowledge, all of which prevented them from
choosing pertinent and significant sources. Before they
are obliged to exhibit all of their skills at once,
students should find an opportunity to observe how
other writers employ these strategies and practice them
in a unique way (Fazilatfar et al., 2018).
Limited Available Related Studies. One of the
challenges that the student researchers encountered
was the limited number of related studies available.
This hindrance stops them from brainstorming unique
ideas. According to them:
“I feel that my references are lacking. If we cannot
find it on the internet, we look for other sources, such
as the thesis here in the library. We need lots of
references to widen our knowledge and construct ideas
out from it.” – P5.
“My challenge so far is by the time I look for
numerous references in a certain topic and not able to
see those expected references needed for our study.” –
P9.
“Our topic is rare, and I know it’s either no one or
limited researcher conducted this study.”- P13.
Plagiarism prevents students from applying and
solidifying their newly acquired knowledge. When the
risks are lower, students are more likely to plagiarize,
indicating that they are aware of the potential
repercussions of plagiarism. However, the lack of
literature available is quite a problem for most
students. Often, students plagiarize in ways they don't
consider serious and that they can't connect to their
writings as works of knowledge. As students advance
in their academic careers, they plagiarize in subtler
ways (Sorea & Repanovici, 2020).
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Pressure to Meet Deadlines. Pressures in meeting
deadlines are also considered a challenge for student
researchers in addressing plagiarized content in of
their papers. The students have felt limited time.
According to them:
“I remember that time when we are left with no choice
but to adopt an idea from the internet. That happened
because we are only given a week to submit a certain
chapter, and we are dealing with other matters. We
don't have time to look for other references.” – P3.
“The challenging part for me is the pressure of
meeting d ead lines. I need enough time to
conceptualize my research paper. It’s not easy for me”.
– P10
“I seek help from my classmates, especially for me as
a math major, because we need to establish
relationships to help solve those problems that we
cannot or are not able to solve. That’s why time
management is a must for me” – P15.
There are numerous demands on students' time, such
as peer pressure to keep up an active social life,
commitments to campus sports and performing
activities, family obligations, and pressure to finish
numerous tasks in a short amount of time. The time
management of the students is impacted, and
plagiarism may result. These pressures can lead
students to use unethical tactics, such as plagiarism, in
order to cheat on examinations or research outputs
(Muluk et al, 2021).
d. Coping Strategies in Addressing Plagiarized
Contents
Three themes emerged from the responses about the
coping strategies for addressing plagiarized content:
Scanning More References, Repetitive reading, and
Utilizing Paraphrasing Tools and Plagiarism Checker.
Scanning More References. The student researchers
were able to cope with the challenges by scanning
more references. Their advisers encouraged them to
address plagiarized content at all times. As they have
stated:
“We are encouraged to look for lots of references. We
need to gather these references to compare our study if
ever this is already exists or not.” – P3
“Through analyzing and understanding, we can
convert these reference sources into our own original
output.” P10
Arnoco & Naparan
“We need more references, although we are not
instructed to have a minimum number of references.
But we are reminded to scan for published references
in case this study of ours has not yet been discovered.”
P17
The study that resulted in the writing of an effective
thesis represents the students' most significant
exposure to literature, whether through the library or
the Internet. This is because the students are required
to evaluate relevant material, which necessitates the
collection and logical organization of numerous
intellectual ideas that will assist in placing their work
within the framework of the body of literature already
in existence (Awasthi, 2019).
Repetitive Reading. As previously mentioned, one of
the challenges faced by the student researchers was
literature comprehension. They were able to resolve
this problem by repetitive reading. The participants
mentioned:
“I read the statements again to fully understand the
points needed to be applied in my study” – P6
“I don’t have wide knowledge on vocabulary,
especially since I have learned different languages;
that’s why I need to re-read the references I have
gathered.”- P8.
“I sometimes get puzzled by the terminologies used in
the different journal articles I found online and even in
the library. What I did is to gather these resources and
repetitively run through the keywords. I often found
out that I missed significant statements” – P11.
A student's practices can have an impact on how likely
they are to plagiarize. This includes their general
ability, their capacity for time management, and their
familiarity with the idea of plagiarism. It's vital to
remember that student researchers plagiarize
unintentionally. Incompetence or a lack of
understanding of how to correctly reference or cite can
occasionally stem from a lack of training. Reading
comprehension needs to be established (Pamies et al.,
2019).
Utilizing Paraphrasing Tool and Plagiarism Checker.
Another coping strategy of student researchers to
avoid plagiarism and address plagiarized content in
their research paper is to utilize paraphrasing tools and
a plagiarism checker. According to the participants:
“I cannot say that all of our inputted information is
original since we usually refer to the resources we
found online. But we use paraphrasing tool to make
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sure that originality still remains even though we are
getting information from other studies.” – P1.
“Usually, I paraphrase it word-by-word just to ensure
my thesis is different from others. Paraphrasing tool is
very useful for me” – P2
“I paraphrase using Quillbot, a paraphrasing tool I
found online. However, I am not certain if
paraphrasing could completely avoid plagiarism, but
this is the method I usually apply in my study.” – P4.
“I use plagiarism checkers online to lessen the copied
statements found in my paper.” – P11.
“Our school doesn't have an existing plagiarism
checker. That’s why I use a plagiarism checker, but it
is only limited”. – P18
Similar mistakes in other manuscripts may serve as a
deterrent to plagiarism. It was assumed, during the
investigation of the copied text, that a paraphrasing
tool had been used to create this copied content. To
verify this assumption, a paraphrased version of the
article was created using the selected paraphrasing
tool, and this version was compared to the original
text. The plagiarized language differed significantly
more from the paraphrased version than it did from the
original article. So it was established that a
paraphrasing tool was used to create the copied text.
The information in this article can be used to identify
this kind of plagiarism (Ansorge et al., 2021).
Conclusion
Observing originality during the research process is
important to student researchers. In the literature
review, the students were able to analyze the abstract
of the literature and anchor themes based on the
problem of the study. However, lack of literature
comprehension, limited available related studies, and
pressure to meet deadlines mark the challenges they
encountered. This hindrance stops them from
brainstorming unique thoughts. Meanwhile, they were
able to cope with the challenges by scanning more
references, repetitive reading, and utilizing
paraphrasing tools and plagiarism checkers.
Moreover, librarians should encourage diverse learners
to visit the library more often. This enhances reading
comprehension, the ability to focus and generate ideas,
and gather more references. Furthermore, librarians
need to conduct an information literacy program to
observe originality in research. It is not yet applied to
Arnoco & Naparan
some libraries. This study serves as an awakening for
the librarians to get involved and promote originality
through this program. Researchers should perform
studies related to factors affecting student researchers’
plagiarism practices, and respondents can use the
result of the investigation in their related studies or
make some generalizations based on the output.
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